


If Home Is Where the Heart Is

by sophie_448



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance
Genre: M/M, Post-Summer of Like, dumb boys with dumb emotions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-30
Updated: 2011-09-30
Packaged: 2019-03-29 00:01:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13915011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophie_448/pseuds/sophie_448
Summary: "It was eyeliner," Mikey says.





	If Home Is Where the Heart Is

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "27" - Fic inspired by "Bang the Doldrums"

 

Mikey thinks the call’s going to go to voicemail when Pete finally picks up.

“Mikeyway!” he says, a broad smile in his voice like everything’s fine. But nothing is fine at all.

“It was eyeliner,” he says. He looks down at his arm like the words will still be there, scrawled hastily across his skin.

Pete doesn’t try to pretend he doesn’t know what Mikey is talking about. “Names and details changed to protect the innocent,” he says. Mikey can’t read his tone. He learned how to read Pete when Pete was right in front of him, all the evidence on display. He doesn’t know what to do with the fragmented pieces he has now.

“Pete, I—” He doesn’t know what he wants to say, what the right words will be. All he knows is that he let Pete walk away, or Pete let him, or they let each other, and now everything is wrong. _Better off as lovers,_ he thinks. “Did you mean it?”

There’s silence on the other end of the line long enough that Mikey checks to make sure the call is still connected. But then, Pete says, “Yes.” Soft and a little rough with sincerity.

“Then why—” Mikey starts another sentence he doesn’t know the end of, but Pete cuts him off.

“Come _home_ , Mikey,” he says, and it’s just like Pete that the desperation is right there on the surface where Mikey can’t ignore it or act like he doesn’t know it’s there. But where is home? The only home they’d ever known together was made up of stolen moments in tour buses and parking lots and water parks. Everything they had was built on shifting sands.

“Where?” he asks, and he’s pretty sure his voice is just as transparent as Pete’s.

“Me,” Pete answers immediately. “I could be your home, if you’d let me. And you could be mine. We could, I know we could.” And now Pete sounds all bright and sharp-edged and manic. And, oh, Mikey wants to believe him. Believe that what they had was meant for more than just a summer. He curls his hand tight around his phone and takes a breath.

“Okay.”

Pete gasps, the sound harsh against the phone speaker. “Really?” he asks, like he’s afraid to believe it. Mikey feels something calm and sure settle in his chest where all the sad tightness has been living for months and months.

“I—yeah. Yeah, really.”

Mikey starts to smile.


End file.
